


The Day That Was Supposed To Be Perfect

by FreeHugsForLoki



Category: Benedict Cumberbatch - Fandom, British Actor RPF
Genre: F/M, Fluff, Humiliation, Humour, Marriage Proposal, Over-Emotional Actors
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-04-27
Updated: 2015-04-27
Packaged: 2018-03-26 01:02:58
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,685
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/3831382
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FreeHugsForLoki/pseuds/FreeHugsForLoki
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Proposing is supposed to be easy, right? Well it would be, if it wasn't for those stupid Actor genes...</p>
            </blockquote>





	The Day That Was Supposed To Be Perfect

**Author's Note:**

> Kate is also an actor, playing Fem!Dr. Watson on 'Sherlock'. Therefore, Martin Freeman is still in the show, just with a different part.

**_ 18th August, 2024 _ **

_I am so done. I am so done with Benedict bloody Cumberbatch and his ridiculous bloody schemes. I am so done with his stupid bloody surprises that caused me to scream at him in the middle of a restaurant. That was **so** not how I wanted my engagement to happen. He says he was trying to be romantic. Romantic my arse. I am so done with that man._

**_ TO DO LIST: _ **

-          **_Find out where machetes are legally available for purchase._**

-          **_Find out if I have to move to Texas._**

_Here’s what happened. He phoned me and told me he was coming home from America, and he wanted to take me out for dinner to celebrate my 25 th birthday. I was immediately suspicious, as not only was he announcing his arrival a whole week ahead of schedule, he **knows** I don’t particularly like eating out due to the fact I can’t even order properly without having a mini panic attack and completely humiliating myself._

_I did that anyway, but I’m getting to that._

_He asked me to put on my nicest dress, and meet him at The Merveilleux for eight. Oh yeah, that’s right, **I MADE A SCENE IN THE BLOODY MERVEILLEUX**. _

_In front of the UK’s richest and most famous, I screamed at Benedict Bloody Cumberbatch._

_You couldn’t make it up._

_Anyway, I got a taxi along to the restaurant I have since then sworn to never step foot in again, and found him meeting me outside in his most expensive and most gorgeous blue suit – the one that matches his eyes and the one he only wears when he’s trying to get on my good side._

_And then I began to panic._

_Early homecoming – check. Fancy restaurant – check. Boyfriend of two years trying to get on my good side – check._

_There was only one obvious outcome that I could see - he must be breaking up with me. I always knew he was too good for me, but for him to do it in a restaurant where he knew I’d be forced to take it quietly instead of making a scene…let’s just say I was already getting mad at him._

_This did not help later events._

_“Hi, darling.” He said, embracing me in a tight hug, “It’s so good to see you.”_

_I hugged him back, albeit reluctantly, due to the fact I was already accepting the end of life as I knew it._

_I was already picturing how awkward filming ‘Sherlock’ would be. Who would talk to Martin? Would we have to corner him separately, or would one of us just not speak to him at all?_

_Either way, one of our friendships was going to get damaged._

_I was being incredibly pessimistic, a character trait that’s not classed as normal for me._

_We were led inside and escorted by a waiter who recognised us, and I couldn’t help cringing at the fact we were probably going to be watched by him and all his other fellow members of staff all night, and they were going to see the painful parting of the nation’s favourite duo._

_Apart from Ant and Dec. We’re not quite that good._

_We sat down, and were handed two menus, which Ben instantly handed back and said we already knew what we were having. He quickly ordered and then stared at me intently across the table once the waiter had disappeared. I imagined he was checking how emotionally stable I was feeling. Was his news going to tip me over the edge?_

_“So…” he began. I took deep breaths. “How has the past few weeks been for you?”_

_I almost froze, before remembering I was supposed to be acting like I had no clue what was about to happen. I couldn’t believe he was making small talk at a time like this._

_“Well, um, I guess it was okay. A bit quiet without you, but I got some work done on my book which was good.”_

_“Ah, yes. It’s, well it’s good to keep busy I suppose.”_

_‘ **Good to keep busy** ’? I began to panic even more. He’s the one always telling me to take it easy – that I work too hard. _

_Aren’t actors supposed to have some kind of special gene that makes them amazing at handling any situation or something? A gene that means they know how to act normally when there’s really nothing normal going on? Well let me tell you, Ben doesn’t have that. If he’d just acted normally, I’d never have guessed that something was wrong, I’d never have panicked, and I’d never have made a scene._

**_ TO DO LIST: _ **

-          **_Book emotional rehab for Ben._**

_The waiter brought our food – some kind of pasta dish – and let me tell you, I couldn’t look at it without feeling increasingly nauseous. I just wished he’d get it over with so that I could go home and cry over a bowl of ice-cream and The Waltons._

_“Kate, I have to tell you something.”_

_You know what they say, don’t speak too soon._

_‘ **I take it back. I take it back. I don’t want him to get it over with. I want us to go back to our holiday in Paris last month where we kissed on the beach and cried at the top of the Eiffel Tower because we’re both sensitive actors who cry at everything**. **For the drama, darling.** ’_

_“While I was in America, I did a lot of thinking.” He’d stopped eating by this point, and was looking at me in the way he looked at me when I mucked up my lines or tried to make him laugh on set. I began to realise that look was probably a look of shame, and I mentally face-palmed myself for not noticing it sooner._

_“I thought about us, and where we were heading.”_

_I put down my cutlery and took a huge gulp of my Buck’s Fizz._

_“And…” he took my hand across the table and began to tear up. What was that I said about drama?_

_“And I realised that for the rest of my life…”_

**_I want to be single._ **

_“I want to wake up beside you.”_

_I launched into my prepared speech before I gave what he’d just said time to sink in._

_“Well. Okay. That’s fine. Look, Ben, I did love you, and it was nice while it lasted, but maybe this is for the best. I hope that one day we can still be friends.”_

_He dropped my hand._

_“What?!”_

_And then it hit me._

_“Wait, WHAT?!”_

_“What did you just say?!”_

_“No, what did **you** just say?!”_

_“I said, I want to spend the rest of my life with you.”_

_I stood up quickly, throwing my chair back. It fell to the floor with a loud clatter._

_You know, maybe if I’d just stood up quietly, less people would have watched._

_“WHAT?!” I screamed._

_He stayed sitting, and just looked up at me like a kicked puppy, unable to see what he’d done wrong._

_“I love you, Kate, and I’m asking you to marry me.”_

_Well that just tipped me over the edge, that did._

_“BENEDICT CUMBERBATCH, I AM ACTUALLY GOING TO KILL YOU.”_

_“What?!”_

_“I THOUGHT YOU WERE BREAKING UP WITH ME.”_

_“Breaking up with you?!”_

_Oh **now** he stands…_

_“BRINGING ME OUT HERE IN PUBLIC SO I WOULDN’T MAKE A SCENE, FLYING HOME A WHOLE WEEK EARLIER BECAUSE YOU DIDN’T WANT TO BE TIED DOWN FOR ANY LONGER THAN YOU HAD TO, WEARING THAT STUPID BLOODY SUIT SO I’D BE LESS ANGRY…”_

_I should have stayed standing at our table, hidden away in the corner, but **oh no** , I had to walk up and down the restaurant getting absolutely EVERYONE’S ATTENTION._

_“Oh my GOD, Kate! You choose tonight, of all nights, to be pessimistic?!”_

_“I WOULDN’T HAVE BEEN SO PESSIMISTIC IF YOU WEREN’T ACTING LIKE THE WORLD WAS ABOUT TO END.”_

_“I WAS NERVOUS! I DIDN’T WANT YOU TO SAY NO!”_

_“WHY ON EARTH WOULD I SAY NO?! I LOVE YOU, YOU IDIOT!”_

_“YOU SURE HAVE A FUNNY WAY OF SHOWING IT.”_

_I couldn’t take any more, and I figured the people in the restaurant had enjoyed enough of our little show by this point, so I walked out at that point, and came home to write this._

_I hoped it would help me cool off._

_Oh, wait, I hear the door._

_Speak of the bloody Devil._

_Ben’s just walked in, and asked me if I’m still mad at him._

_I’m going to have to stop writing now so that I can throw something at him._

**_ 18th August, 2024 – three hours later. _ **

_I gave him a black eye. I actually gave him a black eye. Now he’s going to report me to bloody social services for domestic abuse or something and call off the whole wedding. Okay, I probably should have thrown something less hard than my journal at him and gone for like a pillow or something instead, but if he wasn’t such a pain in the arse I wouldn’t have thrown anything at him in the first place._

_I had to sit and hold a bag of peas on his face._

_“I don’t think I’ve ever seen you that angry since Martin’s birthday party last year.” He began, “Do you remember that? You poured beer down the back of his shirt and everything.”_

_“Arsehole had it coming. So did you.”_

_“I was only trying to be romantic.”_

_“Bloody hell, Ben, you couldn’t have just done it here, could you? No, you had to go all dramatic and nervous and cause me to have a scene in the bloody Merveilleux.”_

_He smiled at me nervously._

_“I hope somebody filmed that. It was Oscar-worthy.”_

_“Don’t you dare try and joke about it yet. I’m still incredibly mad at you.”_

_His smile disappeared. “Sorry.”_

_We sat in silence for a moment, as the events of the night finally began to sink in._

_Benedict Cumberbatch had just asked me to marry him, and I gave him a black eye for it._

_“Did you have a speech planned?” I asked, “For the proposal, I mean.”_

_He laughed, “Yeah, I did. I wrote it out on a huge bit of paper and have spent the past week memorising it so that I didn’t muck anything up.”_

_I sighed at that, “Gosh. I’m sorry, Ben. I completely ruined it for you.”_

_His uncovered, pea-less eye looked down, away from me and towards the couch. “No, I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have made you panic like that. It was me who ruined things.”_

_My anger was beginning to disappear by this point, due to the fact he looked slightly adorable and vulnerable with me having the power to hurt him again, and that look he had on his face. That stupid guilty look I’d only seen once before; the time he’d forced me to have lunch with his horrific French Aunt._

_Without him._

_It was because of those two things, and the guilt I had on my own, that the next thing I said to him happened to be:_

_“How about you say the rest of it now? In fact, no, let’s just start again. I’m going to walk in, and you can start your proposal from the very beginning. How about that?”_

_He finally made eye contact with me, and smiled._

_“That sounds absolutely perfect.”_

_So I disappeared back into the kitchen, taking the peas with me, and poured us both a glass of our own Buck’s Fizz. As soon as I handed him his own glass, he started._

_“Kate, I have to tell you something.”_

_I took a deep breath, and replied to him in the way I would have if he’d have just done it like this in the first place._

_“Don’t tell me we’ve run out of rich teas.”_

_“No,” he laughed, “We’ve still got rich teas.”_

_“Well what, then? DID YOU BREAK A MUG?!”_

_“No! Nothing that bad!”_

_“Okay, so it’s good news?”_

_“The best news.”_

_“Well get on with it then.”_

_“Sorry. While I was in America, I did a lot of thinking.”_

_“Oh no, that’s always a bad sign.”_

_“Will you let me finish?!”_

_“Sorry.”_

_“I thought about us, and where we were heading. And…and I realised that for the rest of my life…” He started tearing up again, and the fact we were actually getting it right this time made me tear up too. Stupid actor genes._

_“…I want to wake up beside you.”_

_I didn’t trust myself to speak after what happened the last time, so I decided it would probably just be best for me to say nothing at all until he’d finished._

_“I loved you from the very first moment I laid eyes on you. Do you remember that? It was our first day of Sherlock script run-throughs, and you ran in ten minutes late, soaking wet from the rain, saying; ‘SORRY I’M LATE. I ELECTROCUTED MYSELF WITH MY HAIRDRYER THIS MORNING AND PASSED OUT.’ You had everyone around the table in tears as you re-told the story of your mid-morning drama, and I couldn’t help watching you with a certain amusement and wonder.”_

_I remember that look. That was the first time I was drawn to him._

_“You captured the whole room’s attention completely, whether they were cameramen or actors or directors or cleaners, they all came to watch you talk. Your eyes sparkled as you spoke, and when somebody brought you a cup of tea you gave them the most grateful hug I’ve ever seen. I asked you about that later, about why you gave him a hug, and you said, ‘Always be nice to people on the way up, because you might meet them on the way down.’ I found that amazing.”_

_I remember that guy. He did make really good tea…_

_“The icing on the cake of that whole day though, had to be when they gave you a towel to dry your hair because they didn’t trust you with the new expensive dryers they’d just ordered in. You looked adorable with your hair all fluffy like that.”_

_I scoffed, “I looked like a lion.”_

_“I liked it.”_

_“Well, they do say beauty is in the eye of the beholder.”_

_“Touché. But my point is, on that very first day, listening to you tell your very first story, I fell in love with you and I have continued to fall deeper in love with you every day. I don’t ever want to leave you, and I hope you never want to leave me either. That’s why I have to ask, Kate, will you do me the honour of becoming my wife?”_

_Let me just tell you, that at the end of that I was practically on the floor with excitement. I must have looked ridiculous trying to hold it all in – like some kind of cross between Andrew Lloyd Webber and Patrick from SpongeBob. I do a much better job of graciously accepting proposals when there’s a camera in front of me._

_Hey, maybe we could re-enact it and film it._

**_ TO DO LIST: _ **

-          **_Persuade Ben to re-enact proposal. Tell him it’ll help couples everywhere – if we can do it they can do it – and he’s technically helping the greater good._**

_I ended up jumping on him, pushing him back into the sofa, and laughing extremely loudly – borderline maniacal._

_There was nothing he could do except ‘hug’ me back and start laughing too – as well as double-checking this response was actually a yes._

**_ TO DO LIST: _ **

-          **_Make banner telling Ben I’m going to marry him._**

_So now I’m lying in our bed, writing this by the candlelight (how poetic, I’m still surprised Ben agreed to letting me near flames) while Ben is asleep._

**_ TO DO LIST: _ **

-          **_Stop watching fiancé sleep._**

_If he caught me…bloody hell…then I really **would** be reported to social services._

_Oh, and you know that look I mentioned earlier? You know, the look I thought was a look of shame?_

_Turns out it was a look of love._


End file.
